Speaking on how to manage cancer patients, Okoro, a specialist at Evercare Hospital Lekki, noted that the emotional and psychological burden of cancer was occasionally too much for patients to handle.
“When a patient is diagnosed with cancer, it is expected to result in physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual changes in the individual, thus strategies for coping with this condition are crucial to the patient, as it may lead to improved treatment outcome, ” he said.
With cancer as one of the leading terminal illnesses, Okoro stated that the first step is to explain to a patient how to understand the diagnosis and disease process.
“The managing physician should provide information on the type of cancer, location of the cancer, and the stage of the disease. He should also tell the patient if the disease is treatable or not, give treatment options, side effects of treatment, cost of treatment, what happens if patient declines any treatment and life changes to expect during and after treatment.”
Okoro said maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important to managing cancer. He said a healthy lifestyle would improve the energy level and help the patient manage the stress and fatigue of its treatment.
“Patients should choose a healthy diet as well as get enough rest and exercise. Patients who can exercise during treatment can deal better with side effects and may live longer,” he said.
